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I'm developing an app which publishes actions to the timeline.

On the app settings, I've created the action "post" and use the built in object type "article".

Although my graph actions have not been approved by facebook, that should not be a problem, because I am logged in as the developer of the app.

My article URLs pass facebook's linter with warnings, but no errors.

When my app notifies facebook of the the post action, it appears to succeed. Facebook returns an ID representing the action.

When I use facebook's graph explorer to view that ID, the data appears to be correct, showing the correct action type and object data. (If there's a URL to browse the action on facebook, instead of the graph explorer, I do not know what it is).

Still, with all the above apparently working without errors, I never see the action on my timeline. Whether I browse my own timeline, or when logged in as a friend and another developer of the app, I never see any indication on facebook.com that the action was performed.

What am I missing to make my custom action appear on my timeline page?

rink.attendant.6
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Dave Cohen
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7 Answers7

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I had a similar problem. I was using OG and I could post everything successfully, but the posts didn't appear in timeline, but only in the activity log in Facebook.

I just went to the settings of the action and set "Explicitly Shared: This action can specify the user explicitly shared an action." to ON.

Then in my piece of code I put "true" to the key "fb:explicitly_shared" while creating the OG object.

Marcelo Noguti
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  • Does it require any permissions extra permissions apart from publish_action ? – ʞɹᴉʞ ǝʌɐp Apr 28 '15 at 06:15
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    @DaveKirk for what I remember, you'll not need any extra permissions. Just put the new parameter "fb:explicitly_shared" as true in your request and set "Explicitly Shared: This action can specify the user explicitly shared an action" to ON in facebook settings. However, you might need to explain what your app is going to do with this when creating the action. Until it's not approved, things are not published explicitly – Marcelo Noguti Apr 28 '15 at 13:23
  • Thanks for the reply. "Explicitly Shared" (capability) is not approved yet, I am marking it for FB review. Let's see how it goes. I ll update here. Thanks. – ʞɹᴉʞ ǝʌɐp Apr 28 '15 at 19:40
  • How can I enable it now when fb says that custom actions are deprecated? – YTerle Apr 01 '17 at 21:31
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If no error is being returned it sounds as if there is an issue in your public page that is preventing Facebook from knowing what to post.

Have you double checked your OG: meta tags through Facebook's validation tool [ https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug ]. While you need all of the values to be filled in, the type bit is the most overlooked and must be setup properly to link to your particular application and corresponding action.

If your OG: data is correct and validating you should also check the detail settings for your action and aggregations. If the phrase / tense bits are not filled in Facebook may be uncertain how to make your post appear back to on the timeline.

Ted S
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  • Yes, "My article URLs pass facebook's linter with warnings, but no errors." I find that if I get the og:type wrong, my attempt to post the action does not return an ID. In this case, the og:type is correct (article) and when I post the action to the graph I do get an ID returned. The phrase / tense bits were filled in by facebook automatically and they look correct. There is an aggregation set up. I wonder is that necessary to see even a single event on the timeline? – Dave Cohen Oct 06 '11 at 15:55
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I've been getting the same issue with a feed dialog post. The posts can be navigated to directly, but doesn't show on timeline. More details here: Actions not appearing on timeline

Nicolas Wynkoop
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    Turns out if you delete too many posts from the app off of your timeline, FB automatically hides them. All the sharing is working perfectly from a second account. Could be the same on actions. – Nicolas Wynkoop Jul 27 '12 at 19:17
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I had a similar problem, but everything was actually working correctly. If you get a returned ID and your article appears in your RECENT ACTIVITY, then all should be good.

The perceived issue, your post not appearing in your timeline, is actually the correct behavior. Your post doesn't appear in your timeline because it should appear in your friends' timeline as an activity that you completed. Once they comment or like it, then it should reappear on your timeline.

Nathan
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For me the issue was the posts doesn't show on timeline for all users except me also it was public !, i fixed it by make turn on application as online to be available to all users

Ahmad Alaa
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Discoverd the problem....

My article page include an article:author tag. The URL in that tag was not visible to anonymous users. So, I'm guessing, facebook visited that author URL and received a HTTP 403.

When I removed the article:author tag, the items started appearing on my timeline.

So be careful with all tags and put all urls through facebook's debug tool.

Dave Cohen
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Hmmm Interesting

Was having the same issue...

Using the XFBML, fb:like with all required og meta tags validating on the linter.

Last month when I liked a 'product' on my website, the post was published on my fb timeline wall no worries. Nice, perfect! Today after clicking Like, I noticed it wasn't publishing to my timeline wall at all... but was logged in the Activity Feed. It did however post to my wall if I commented on the Like Button flyout comment section.

Then I found this "Pages of type article do not have publishing rights, and will not show up on user's profiles because they are not real world objects."

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraphprotocol/#types

Zarne Dravitzki
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  • Changed og:type to product... still not posting to my wall. Sure enough it will when I comment on the product in the like button section... – Zarne Dravitzki Feb 24 '12 at 05:13